Crescent Society

From Wiki China org cn
Saying goodbye to Cambridge again, a poem of Xu Zhimo

Crescent Society was one of the largest Chinese literary societies founded after the May 4th Movement. Established by Chinese poet Xu Zhimo in Beijing in 1923, the society attracted a number of important domestic scholars and literary figures including Hu Shi, Wen Yiduo, Liang Shih-chiu, Shen Congwen and Lin Huiyin. Their publications first appeared in a supplement of the Beijing Morning Post.

On March 10, 1928, the society published its own magazine, the Crescent Monthly, which contained poems, essays and prose generally composed by the bourgeoisies who joined the debate with the League of Left-Wing Writers.

Beginning as a club where scholars and literary figures dined together, the society promoted pure aestheticism in literature and life. There were many poems, such as I don’t know where the breeze blows to, West window and The insect in fall, that reflect the beauty of skilled writing. The society also contributed to introducing western literary masters, including William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Henrik Johan Ibsen.

The influence of Crescent Society was reduced in 1931 when its founder Xu died in an airplane crash. The society was dismissed in 1933 when the Crescent Monthly stopped publication.